I've been covering the video game space for 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, Reuters, CNET, AOL, Wired Magazine, Yahoo!, Entertainment Weekly, NBC, Variety, Maxim, EGM, and ESPN. I serve as EIC of GamerHub.tv and co-founder of GamerHub Content Network, a video game and technology video syndication network that works with Tribune and DBG to syndicate game videos and editorial around the world. I also cover games for outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, IGN, Geek Monthly, CNN, DigitalTrends and PrimaGames.

$220 Million Battleship Flop Sinks Not Only Universal Pictures, But Activision Game

Activision has drastically reduced the number of games it releases these days. The company remains focused on core franchises like its two Call of Duty games, including Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and popular Skylanders toys and games. But while many publishers have moved away from Hollywood licensed games, Activision still dabbles in them. You just don’t hear a lot about some of these games, including the new Battleship game from developer Double Helix.

Universal Pictures sunk $220 million (not including its massive advertising budget) into the new Peter Berg Battleship movie, which was torpedoed at the North American box office with a meager $9.5 million opening day and a $25.4 million opening weekend. While the movie has already made $226.8 million over the last month from its international haul, it will go down as the second massive flop for lead actor Taylor Kitsch. Fortunately, Disney didn’t invest any money in a John Carter video game. That $250 movie opened at $30.6 million and leveled out at $71.8 million. Even with a $200.6 million overseas haul, Disney lost $200 million on the movie and Disney movie exec Rich Ross lost his job. But at least Disney based its movie on a classic sci-fi book series from author Edgar Rice Burroughs, not a board game devoid of plot or characters.

Universal execs were expecting Battleship to perform much better at the box office, trying to cash in like Paramount Pictures has with another HasbroGames property — the Transformers movies. But Transformers featured beloved characters that evolved from toys into animated TV shows and quality games. Activision has had great success developing Transformers games with two unique franchises – one based on the film series from Michael Bay and another original series based on the fiction. High Moon Studios has unique teams working on both of these franchises. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, is the latest Activision game and it’s shaping up to be a big game for this year.

Battleship: The Game, however, is not. The game quietly shipped without a wave of reviews (it’s not the type of game that’s going to get positive reviews, as is the case with most movie games). The strategy is to ride the success of the big movie and attract mainstream audiences who don’t mind paying $60 after shelling out $10 or more on a movie ticket to a summer blockbuster. But those reviews out there like this one on Gamerlive.tv, aren’t going to help sales of the game.

Developer Double Helix, which last summer released a half-decent Green Lantern game based on Warner Bros. horrible $200 milion movie (which made only $116 million in domestic box office). This year, they’ve crafted a first-person shooter for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that puts players in the role of a new character not in the film, Cole Mathis. The first class Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician must deal with the same alien invasion that Berg brings to life in the film. The game throws in some strategy elements that have their roots in the Hasbro board game. But it’s a rental, at best. And after the movie experience, it’s unlikely many people will want to further explore the naval warfare. There’s also a separate Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS turn-based game, but I recommend sticking with the original board game, which is still more fun to play.

Activision does have a potential blockbuster movie-based hit on its hands with The Amazing Spider-Man, an epilogue to the Sony Pictures 3D movie reboot. Developer Beenox is allowing gamers to explore a virtual Manhattan with the new game, which picks up after the events of the Marc Webb directed movie starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. The game maker has had a string of successful Spider-Man games, splitting up the movie-based titles from the comic book-based games.

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I just can’t fathom how disconnected from reality the Universal execs had to be to OK the movie. The very idea for it was so absurd, that when I first read about it, I thought it was some kind of a hoax…

I’d be very surprised to learn that anyone is surprised that this turd of a movie is a giant box office turd.

Seriously. The people that make these “blockbusters” (that term seems to only apply to the budgets, these days) are completely clueless when it comes to what people want to see in the theatres. Despite the Michael Bay philosophy that says more explosions equal a better movie, I have to say that the majority of movie goers aren’t that brainless. They may not be exactly discerning, but they know a shitty movie when they see one and Battleship was clearly a shitty movie from day one.

A monkey could have guessed this movie would have flopped. The trailer felt like a gag on SNL. Even though the transformers movies were awful, there was still affection for these characters because of the old animated series.

As for the video games, Double Helix is a cancer. They ruined two legendary video game franchises (Silent Hill and Front Mission) and have become a text book example of why Japanese developers should never hand off their precious intellectual property off to clueless western studios. A lesson Hideo Kojima observed before hiring Platinum Games for the next Metal Gear.

Hollywood is a joke, the video game industry is the new Hollywood, lots of cash ins and empty big action experiences like call of duty that offer no intellectual substance.

The marketing for both John Carter and Battleship was terrible. An incoherent jumble of special-effects moments is not going to convince people to see a move. Next time, how about you give us some clue of the plot, the backstory, etc.? Or did you just not have any? I didn’t notice it so much with John Carter, as I’ve read all the books; but I’ve still only got the vaguest idea what battleship is about. I know aliens are involved, and apparently there’s a battleship in there somewhere…

Guess it’s supposed to be a guy movie, but it’s insulting. It was a lame idea. But it did show off the non-talents of a swimsuit model and a hip hop singer. They must be somebody’s girlfriends – someone at the very top.